2017 Community College Master Teacher Institute

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS), the University of Washington’s Center for Global Studies, and Madison College’s Center for International Education are hosting their annual two-day workshop for community, technical, and two-year college instructors. This interactive workshop will provide participants with a general introduction to the international framework for the protection of child rights. The framework includes the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ and related UN instruments, as well as how global institutions protect (or fail to protect) the human dignity of each child. Specific challenges included in the ‘U.S. Action Plan on Children in Adversity’ also will be explored in more depth such as child trafficking, migration, and refugees, children outside of family care, and each child’s right to an identity and nationality. Through exploration of these specific challenges, participants will be encouraged to link the broader international framework to their local context through proposed course content and identification of hurtles from traumatic childhood experiences that their students may be struggling to overcome themselves. IRIS, on a first-come, first-served basis, will cover the cost of hotel rooms for participants from outside of Dane County. Some additional funds to help defray the cost of transportation from outside of Dane County may also be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Jean M. Geran, Ph.D. – Jean Geran is on the leadership circle of the 4W Initiative (Women, Wellbeing, Wisconsin and the World) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and directs 4W’s pillar anti-trafficking project called Social Transformations to End Exploitation and Trafficking for Sex or STREETS. Dr. Geran has extensive foreign policy experience working on human rights, trafficking in persons, and child protection and founded a social enterprise called Each Inc. to provide capacity building and technology support to child care practitioners globally. She has been a Member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State responsible for issues including human rights, trafficking in persons, child protection, and refugee policy. She served as the Director for Democracy and Human Rights on the National Security Council, as Advisor on United Nations Reform and as an Abuse Prevention Officer on the U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team in Iraq. She was the recipient of the 2006 Young Distinguished Alumni Award from UW-Madison.

Mark P. Lagon, Ph.D. – Mark Lagon is a thought leader and practitioner on human trafficking, human rights, global health, as well as global institutions and partnerships. He is Chief Policy Officer at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. He is also Centennial Fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Previously, he was Executive Director and CEO of the leading anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Polaris Project. From 2007 to 2009, as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large, Lagon directed the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) at the U.S. Department of State. He chaired the Senior Policy Operating Group coordinating all U.S. agencies efforts to combat human trafficking domestically and internationally. He is co-editor with Anthony Clark Arend of the 2014 book, Human Dignity and the Future of Global Institutions and is also on the advisory board of ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and the Center for Victims of Torture.

Felicity Sackville Northcott, Ph.D. – Felicity Northcott, Director of External Partnerships and International Services, comes to International Social Service-USA after 20 years at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Northcott holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Northcott has published numerous articles on international child welfare including: Pathways to Permanency: Supporting Cross-Border Family Findingand Engagement for Children in Foster Care; Family Finding and Engagement Beyond the Bench: Working Across International Borders; and The Role of Social Workers in International Legal Cooperation: Working Together to Serve the Best Interest of the Child. Dr. Northcott has expertise in a range of international child welfare treaties and issues including international adoption, international abduction, and international case management. She has trained hundreds of social workers, lawyers and judges on best practices in international family finding and engagement, how to access necessary resources for managing complex international child welfare cases and international laws and treaties that affect social work and legal practice in the United States.

Pre-registration is required.

For more information, please contact Nancy Heingartner at outreach@iris.wisc.edu or 608.265.6585.

The Institute for Regional and International Studies is coordinating this workshop, funded by its Title VI National Resource Center grant from the International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office of the US Department of Education. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington and Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) Center for International Education.